Sophie goes on a date
by raisingme
Summary: Teenage Sophie is going on her first date. Gail is not thrilled with the prospect, and Holly might not be either.


5

"Sophie! What time did you tell Gerald to get here?" Gail called up the stairs to her daughter, who was _still_ getting ready for her date. She could partly understand it; getting ready _was_ the best part of a date, but Sophie was taking it to an extreme. She had started to get ready at before 5, and it was already 6:19 according to Gail's watch. She was pretty sure Gerald was supposed to be there at 6:30. _Gerald_. How in the world had Sophie managed to find a boy with THAT name? Gail groaned and rolled her eyes at the thought. At the sensation of a hand on the small of her back she instantly began to relax.

"So she's still getting ready?" Holly asked as she slowly moved to wrap her arm around Gail's waist.

"Yes," huffed Gail. Holly quietly laughed and kissed her wife's temple.

"You know, I seem to remember a woman telling me once that getting dressed was actually the best part of a date."

Gail slowly turned her head to glare at Holly.

"Gail."

The blonde turned back to face the stairs, crossing her arms. "Sounds like a smart woman. But since the 'getting ready' bit is the best part, that means there's no real reason for her to even go on this date with this, ugh, _Gerald_."

Holly laughed at the sound of disgust in Gail's voice for the boy. "Sweetie, you can't hate him just because his name is Gerald."

"Fine, then I'll hate him because he's a TEENAGE BOY taking our BABY GIRL out on a date," huffed Gail. "I dated teenage boys, Holly. I know what they're like. It's not good."

"Gail, she's not a baby anymore. She's 16."

The blonde turned once again to face her wife, narrowing her eyes at her.

Holly just smiled sweetly back at her in response. "And you can't hate him just because he's a _boy_ either."

"A TEENAGE boy, Holly. You just don't get it. You never dated them. You don't know what they're like...with all those hormones coursing through their veins, it's like they can't even think about anything besides sex."

"Gail, I am a doctor. You do know that, right? I think that I understand pretty well how puberty impacts a child, and"

"Exactly! A child! Sophie is still a child! We can't let her go out with some creeper named _Gerald_." Gail had turned her body to face Holly and was pleading with her wife.

"Gail."

"Look, Holly, you just can't get it...not the way that I do. If you had dated some of the creeps that I did…" Gail shuddered as she trailed off. "And yeah, I know, Sophie's 16, but she's still a child." Gail suddenly became very quiet and hung her head as she added, "She's still my baby girl."

"Oh sweetie," Holly pulled the blonde into a tight embrace. "I know, and she always will be." Holly gently rubbed Gail's back with one hand while stroking her hair with the other. "No matter how old she is, she'll always be our little girl." While speaking Holly had moved to gently cup Gail's face, her thumbs tracing small circles on the blonde's cheeks. "But unfortunately we can't keep her locked up in her room for the rest of her life." Holly gave Gail a small grin.

"I don't know why the hell not," grumbled Gail. Holly laughed at her wife before giving her a quick peck on the lips. She began to jog up the stairs before calling over her shoulder "I'll see what's taking the princess so long to get ready. Hopefully I can help." She flashed Gail her trademark lopsided grin before disappearing.

It was only a few seconds before Gail heard the doorbell ring.

Gail answered the door, and immediately scrunched up her face in confusion. An olive skinned hand jutted out to shake hers, as she heard the teenager speak. "Hi! You must be Gail. Sophie has told me so much about you. It's great to finally meet you," smiling broadly before adding "I'm Gerald."

"You're...Gerald?" Gail tilted her head to the side, still very much confused by the teenager standing before her.

"Well, Geraldine, but everyone just calls me Gerald," the girl standing in front of her replied while slightly shrugging her shoulders.

"This is," Gail began "...wonderful! I am _so happy_ that you're Gerald, I mean, that you're here, Gerald." Gail smiled warmly at the girl in front of her and shook her hand. "Please, come inside."

The two sat down in the living room in awkward silence for a few minutes. Gail looked over at Gerald, and noticed that she reminded her a lot of Holly. Tall, long dark hair, nerdy glasses, and a beautiful olive skin tone. Gail recalled to her childhood when her mother told her how she'd end up marrying a man like her father. _Huh, I guess that's what Sophie's doing_ she thought to herself before finally speaking to the teenager on her couch.

"Sophie should be down any minute. Holly went up to help her get ready not too long ago. Can I get you something to drink?"

"Some water would be nice, thanks."

Passing the stairs as she walked towards the kitchen, Gail called upstairs, "Girls! Just wanted to let you know that Gerald's here." A sigh of relief had washed over Gail when learned that _she_ was Gerald. She was surprised that Sophie hadn't told them that her date was a girl. Gail only cared though because if she had known it would have saved her a lot of stress and anxiety. She knew that even Holly had been a little anxious about Sophie's first 'real' date, but that she had pushed those fears aside to be the strong one to comfort Gail. She was sure that she would be just as relieved upon finding out that Gerald was actually a _Geraldine_.

Holly came down the stairs just as Gail was leaving the kitchen. "Hey," Gail whispered, the excitement evident in her voice, "I have some great news. Come here." Holly was quickly pulled into the kitchen.

"Please don't tell me you poisoned Gerald's water," Holly said, staring at the glass in Gail's hand.

"What? No. Why would I hurt Gerald?"

"Um, I'm sorry, are you not the same woman who earlier today asked me if I knew how to make it so that a dead body could never be properly identified? And if I'm recalling this correctly, you asked me that while you were cleaning your gun."

"Holly, keeping your firearm clean and in proper working order is the cornerstone of gun safety."

"Sure it is."

"Anyway, my great news is about Gerald." Gail wasn't sure how much longer she could contain her excitement. She had the biggest smile on her face and was gently bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Oh god. Did you already kill him."

"No. And it's her."

"Her who?"

"Gerald."

"What about him?"

"No, Gerald...that's the her. Turns out _Gerald_ is short for _Geraldine_." Gail could no longer contain her excitement as she squealed with delight. "Isn't that great?!"

Holly suddenly felt dizzy. There was a tightness in her chest and she was sure that the room was spinning violently out of control. All the moisture in her mouth suddenly disappeared.

"Aren't you excited?!"

Holly stared at her wife, a blank expression on her face.

"Wait. Hang on. So Sophie is going on a date with a teenage _girl_?"

"Yep! She actually looks like you. Like, a lot like you...almost a 'mini me' or something."

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Wait...what? Are you okay? What's wrong? Did you eat something bad?"

"Gail, this is horrible news!" Holly practically shouted it at her wife.

"Shhh! Keep it down. Gerald's sitting on the couch in the living room. And how the hell is this horrible news? Now we don't have to worry about some sleazy teenage boy making moves on our little girl."

"Gail, this is so much worse."

The blonde stared at her wife. She didn't look good...at all. The color had drained completely from her face.

"I don't understand how."

"Gail, you were worried about Sophie dating some teenage boy because you dated them in high school, and you knew how sleazy they could be, right?"

"Right."

"Yeah, but instead she's brought home some hormone crazed TEENAGE GIRL that you are now telling me could be me 20 years ago, and"

"More like 25."

"Shut up, Gail. And if this Gerald _is_ anything like me at that age...oh god...we have to put the fear of god into her. You'll tell all those stories about knowing hundreds of ways to kill someone and exactly where to hide the body so it would never be found, and I'll talk about all the ways to make it impossible to identify a body."

"Uh…"

"I'm serious, Gail. Sophie is just A CHILD...you said so yourself! She can't be dating some sex-crazed teenage girl!"

"You do know that we had this exact same conversation not even 20 minutes ago, right?"

"Shut up, Gail."


End file.
